Open Source Research
My company is looking into intelligent uses of open source software for itself and clients. I have the fun task of becoming very educated about the subject and helping management put together the list of questions for the IP lawyer. I have already done some investigation and know that the GNU GPL is the most popular open source license, and open
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The GPL, for example, is couched in very peculiar language, legally speaking. There are a lot of "terms of art" that are subject to significant amounts of interpretation. There's a pretty much undefined notion of something which might or might not be "inherently" part of the system, something which has no particular legal precedent and which isn't really defined in the license itself, for example.
Moreover, none of this has ever been tested in a court of law, and any lawyer worth his salt will tell you that nobody knows what a contract actually means until that happens.
A lot will depend on the nature of the work you do, and the uses to which you want to put the software in question. For example, if we were to lift, wholesale, the fil system, say, from some open source/free project or other and incorporate it into our OS, we'd arguably be required to release the entire OS in source form, pretty much putting us out of business. On the other hand, if we were to use the GIMP, a free Photoshop-alike, to make bitmaps for use in the OS, that'd seem to be okay.
I don't have specific pointers handy, but if you can talk to a lawyer who understands IP law and licensing, it'd be informative to have him give you a rundown on the issues in the GPL, for instance.
If I have some time, I'll see what I can turn up. Most of this was done via discussions with our legal folks when I was looking into it...
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